The abrupt dismantling of USAID has sent shockwaves through global development and humanitarian aid networks. With $43 billion in funding previously directed toward healthcare, education, and gender equality programs, its shutdown leaves millions — particularly women and vulnerable communities — without essential services. But beneath the headlines, this crisis is not just about foreign aid. It is a continuation of the colonial power dynamics that have long defined Western intervention in the Global South— a stark reminder of how imperial control extends beyond direct occupation and into the realm of economic dependency and conditional assistance.
This article will examine how USAID’s shutdown is not just a logistical failure, but an act of colonial violence, disproportionately harming the very communities that Western policies have historically destabilized.
USAID and the Colonial Legacy of “Aid”
For decades, USAID has functioned as both a humanitarian force and a tool of soft power for the United States. Like many Western-led aid organizations, it has operated under the guise of development while reinforcing economic and political dependence in post-colonial nations. The idea that the Global South “needs” Western intervention is rooted in colonial paternalism, where former imperial powers position themselves as benevolent saviors, even as their economic and political policies continue to extract wealth and destabilize governments in these same regions.
With the shutdown of USAID, the devastating consequences — rising maternal deaths, loss of reproductive healthcare, and increased poverty — demonstrate just how deeply entrenched this dependency has become. If a single agency’s withdrawal can cause massive public health failures, what does that say about the long-term impact of Western intervention in the first place?
Reproductive Control as a Colonial Tool
One of the most immediate and devastating impact of USAID’s shutdown is the loss of reproductive health services for millions of women worldwide. The ability to access contraception, prenatal care, and maternal health support is not just a medical issue — it is a political one.
Historically, colonial powers have sought to control the reproductive choices of the colonized, whether through forced sterilization programs, anti-abortion policies, or the economic strangulation of healthcare infrastructure. USAID has long played a role in this dynamic, often imposing ideological restrictions on funding, particularly regarding abortion and sexual health services. Now, with its complete shutdown, we see the reverse: rather than coercing compliance through funding conditions, the U.S. is weaponizing scarcity, leaving communities without any options at all.
For women in regions where USAID was a primary healthcare provider, this is more than just an administrative failure — it is a death sentence.
Who Decides Who Gets to Live?
This crisis forces us to ask a fundamental question: who has the power to decide which communities deserve healthcare, education, and survival?USAID’s shutdown demonstrates the colonial nature of global aid, where funding is given and withdrawn at the discretion of the same imperial powers that created these conditions in the first place.
The United States, which helped orchestrate coups, destabilize governments, and enforce crippling economic policies, now abandons the very nations it helped keep in crisis.
The withdrawal of USAID will widen inequalities, proving that Western aid has never been about empowerment — it has been about control.
A truly decolonial approach to global health and development would not rely on the whims of a foreign power but would instead focus on self-determination, local investment, and reparations for the harm caused by colonial intervention.
A Colonial Crisis Disguised as Policy
The USAID shutdown is not just an economic decision — it is an act of systemic violence against the Global South, exposing the cruel logic of colonial capitalism: create dependency, extract resources, and then withdraw support when it no longer serves Western interests.
This crisis is a reminder that decolonization is not just about removing colonial rulers from government — it is about dismantling the structures that keep former colonies in a perpetual state of vulnerability and dependency.
The real question now is: how do we break free from a world where the survival of entire nations is dictated by imperial powers?
The Colonial Condition is a publication dedicated to critically interrogating colonial legacies, decolonial resistance, and historical reckonings. We challenge dominant narratives and amplify marginalized perspectives. Join the conversation — read, question, and disrupt.